Arrests made in Delhi tourist rape

In India's capital of New Delhi, police have arrested two men over the alleged gang-rape of a 51 year old Danish tourist who is thought to have got lost in the backpacker strip of Pahar Ganj. The woman is reported to have approached the suspects for directions before the attack, which raises more questions about the safety of women in India.

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TIM PALMER: In India's capital of New Delhi, police have arrested two men over the alleged gang-rape of a 51 year old Danish tourist who is thought to have got lost in the backpacker strip of Paharganj.

The woman is reported to have approached the suspects for directions before the attach, which raises more questions about the safety of women in India.

South Asia correspondent Michael Edwards reports from New Delhi.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Paharganj is the place many backpackers immediately go to looking for cheap accommodation when they arrive in New Delhi. Only minutes from the centre of the city, it's also just across from the main railway station. It's a teeming bustling place full of hotels, restaurants and every kind of shop selling everything imaginable to tourists.

Police say the 51 year old Danish woman was walking back to her hotel in the area when she says she asked a group of men for directions. It's then alleged the men pulled a knife and then raped and bashed her over a three-hour period.

Yet again, the world has been reminded of the dangers women face in India.

ARUN GUPTA: It is something which is a total let's say shame in the name of citizens of Delhi. I feel very upset about it.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Arun Gupta is a local hotel owner and heads the Paharganj Tourist Association.

ARUN GUPTA (translated): No tourist feels likes coming to Delhi keeping in mind all these recent incidents of rape of foreign nationals. The rape of a woman from Denmark is condemnable and we have been demanding from the very beginning to use tourist police. But the tourist police have now just become a showpiece and it was never used for its designated purpose.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Last year India's government launched the "I Respect Women" campaign to try to reassure travellers, but it's a hard sell given the facts on the ground.

Just a few days ago, a Polish woman reported a sexual assault while she was on her way back to New Delhi from the northern city of Mathura. An American tourist was gang-raped by a group of men in northern India's hill town of Manali in June last year. And in March 2013 a British woman jumped out of her hotel balcony in northern state of Uttar Pradesh, fearing sexual assault.

Dr Ranjana Kumari is the director of the Centre for Social Research.

RANJANA KUMARI: Certainly it has had an impact on tourism and single girls are fearing travelling in India. That I have seen across wherever I have gone to attend conferences and meetings.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: The Danish woman has left India and was reportedly too distressed to undergo a medical examination, but she has indicated she will help police find her assailants.

India is grappling with the way some of its men treat women. The country is still mourning Nirbhaya, the 23 year old victim of the Delhi gang rape that took place just over a year ago.

RANJANA KUMARI: In a society, when you are looking at all these cases, I feel that in a lot of people, a lot of young men and boys, insensitive, very patriarchal mindset. And when they are at large, they are the ones who are attacking women.

And also gang rape, because gang rapes are a phenomena which is not that old in the Indian context, it's just emerging.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: New Delhi Police say they've identified as many as 15 men who might have been involved in the attack.